Happy New Year and welcome to 2010 (yeah I'm almost 2 weeks late). Time for another topic on NCAA Football 10, one that I think we are going to get a lot of opinions on: Game-play. There are some specific things we'd like to hear about, but really this forum is going to be for any feedback pertaining to game-play you'd like to provide.

First off I'm really interested in what you think of the differences in Madden and NCAA; mainly the changes to Game Speed and PRO-TAK.

• Do you like the game speed in Madden, NCAA, or both?
• Should PRO-TAK be something we look at for NCAA?

Secondly what about our new game-play features?

• Set-up Plays
  • How often do you try and set up a play?
  • Are the set-up plays effective enough?

• Game Planning
  • Which do you use the most?
  • Do some work too well? Or not well enough?

• Defensive Keys
  • How often do you Key in on the offensive play?
  • How well do you think the keys work?

I've seen a lot of the feedback about Run Middle, but please leave any comments you have.

And then just anything else you would like to add.

Keep an eye out for a Live Chat on game-play in the next week or so, and make sure you keep checking this forum to add your opinions.

Thanks everyone!

-Russell Kiniry

Designer NCAA Football

Hello all, my name is Anthony White and I’m here to share with you all what work we did this year for the Flexbone offense.  Going into our current development cycle for NCAA Football 10 our top playbook priority was making sure our version of the Flexbone offense is a more accurate representation of its real life counterpart.  We didn’t necessarily want to just take what’s already in place on the Gen 2 versions of NCAA Football.   Our goal was to take it above and beyond anything that had been done previously with the Flexbone offense on any platform.

Last summer we were able to acquire the actual coach’s game film of the Navy Flexbone offense.  Having access to this valuable resource really gave us an advantage when it was time to identify what new formations that we needed to create, what plays did we need for those formations, and most importantly what new player animations we needed to mo-cap in order to get those plays working properly in our game.  The results of our efforts produced eight new formations and over 200 new plays.

Here’s a look at the new formations that we created based on our film study.

Flexbone Twins Over

Flexbone Slit Wing Z

 
 Flexbone Spit Wing X

 
Flexbone Close

 
Flexbone Slot Right

 
 Flexbone Trips Right

 
Flexbone Trio Right

 
 Flexbone Tackle Over

 
Running Game:

The running attack from this unique offensive system is what it’s most known for, and it’s not all about the triple option.  There are numerous things that can be done with the running game out of the Flexbone.  Some of the new plays that we were able create this year thanks to the new animations include Wingback Toss both weak and strong with a play action pass to compliment it, Midline QB Iso which is a double option scheme where the quarterback can either handoff to the fullback or duck inside the playside B gap following the lead blocks of the two wingbacks, FB and Wingback Load Option plays which also include play action compliments, and the Wingback Jet Sweep.

Those are just a few of the new plays we were able to add for the Flexbone offense, but the most unique one of all we added in my opinion is the Trap Option.  The Trap Option calls for the quarterback to open up to one side of the formation where he then fakes it to the fullback before he pivots and rotates counter clockwise and runs the option in the opposite direction with the backside wingback being his pitch man.  It gets its name Trap Option due to the fact that the backside guard pulls and “trap blocks” the play side defensive end.   

This play to the defense starts out looking like our normal Triple Option play to the defense, but it attacks the opposite side of the field instead.  Before we could get this play up and running in game we needed to capture new player animations featuring the quarterback and fullback.  What generally happens is we identify on film what we want and we in turn communicate that to our mo-cap talent so that they can go out and execute what we’re looking for.  It’s very similar to coaching where you introduce a new scheme to your players and during its installation you walk through each of the finer points of the scheme with each player so that he knows exactly what he needs to do within the play. 

Here’s the mo-cap video of the quarterback and fullback carrying out the first phase of the Flexbone Trap option play. 

 Here’s that same animation in NCAA Football 2010.

Passing Game:

Much attention was also paid to the passing game portion of the Flexbone offense.  When you open up the playbook you’ll notice that most of the running plays have some sort of play action compliment that starts out looking like that run play.  Many of these new plays are a both your more traditional play action passes along with the option passes.  One of the new pass plays are PA Switch in which the outside receiver runs a post route and the wingback to the side runs a wheel route up the sidelines.  This is a common scheme in the Flexbone offense. 

We also wanted to bring some new fresh ideas to the drop back passing portion of the Flexbone offense.  As many of you know this style of offense has the reputation of being a bad offense to run when you’re trailing in the game and need to throw the ball.  Some of the new passing plays we added actually take a page from the Run & Shoot offense.  Two run & shoot pass concepts we added are “60 Go” and “60 Choice”.  In these two plays the left wingback goes in motion to the right slot which forms a trips alignment.  On 60 Go the outside receiver on the now trips side runs a streak route, the motion wingback runs an option route where he can take it to the post or he can go straight up field, and the right wingback runs to the flat.  The goal is to read the curl/flat defender.  If he jumps the flat route, the quarterback should be able to make a quick throw to the option route, if said defender jumps the option route, then the quarterback makes a quick throw to the flat.    

We also included Four Verticals and WR Middle Screen out of Flexbone Trips Right, Left, and Trio Right.  The goal of any offense is to be balanced and that holds true with this style of offense.  If you’re playing with one of the Flexbone offense playbooks and your opponent is loading up to stop the run, you’ll have a multitude of viable passing plays at your disposal to keep your opponent honest.  

Playbooks:

The team playbooks that feature the Flexbone offense prominently are Army, Georgia Tech, and Navy.  Air Force also has multiple Flexbone formations in their playbook along with other more traditional formations.  Here’s a look at the formations and sets that make up our Flexbone playbooks.

 
Even the Goal Line formation for Army, Georgia Tech, and Navy Is a Flexbone formation.

 
It was fun seeing the Flexbone offense through the design phase from concept to its implementation into the game. There's a perception right or wrong that we can just draw up a play and it magically appears in game working the same as it does in real life. There's a lot of planning that goes on amongst the design staff, software engineers, animators, and mo-cap talent to make it all work.  It’s our hope that you guys will enjoy what we now have to offer with the Flexbone offense in NCAA Football 10.

Anthony White, Assistant Designer, EA SPORTS

Is it Thursday already? It has been a very busy last couple months here at Tiburon; all of us on the NCAA Football 10 team have been working extremely hard put the finishing touches on this year’s game. Every day brings us closer to putting NCAA Football 10 into everyone’s hands and we couldn’t be more excited.

Last week we released two game play improvements for NCAA Football 10. The first one showed off the Pass Blocking Pocket; and the second was about the new Player Pursuit Angles.  Today we are going to reveal another two features brand new to the game: Player Lock and Defensive Assist.

While playing defense in Dynasty or Play Now are you the type of person who likes to just take the DE and try and make a play? What about only choosing the FS? Or have you wanted to be the WR on a big third down because you think you can run his route better?

How would you like to be able to do this?

With Player Lock you can select a player on the field and choose to stay him the entire play, this gives you a new perspective depending on the position you choose. In the above example you can see the transition from going from our normal game-play camera to a view behind the middle line backer we locked on too.

You can take any player on defense and any skill position on offense (sorry offensive linemen) to Player Lock onto. I’ve found it the most fun to use on defense, it brings a new way to look at the field and play the game. It is really fun and rewarding to know you were locked on to one player for the whole play and got the pick or the sack.

Here is a random screen shot we got last night of an attempt to block a field goal:

Makes for a nice break for our next feature…

In an effort to help players on defense we’d also like to introduce Defensive Assist. By pressing the A button on Xbox 360 (or the X button on PlayStation 3) your player will move to his correct position at any given time. For example say you are not exactly sure where the corner you are controlling should be playing his zone; all you have to do is press the A button and the player under you control will move to his assignment on the field.



Not only does this apply to zone coverage it applies to all movement on the defensive side of the ball; pursuit angles, man coverage, and ball landing spots. It can also help you swat down a pass, but it will not try and go for an interception or attempt a hit stick tackle (it is an assist after all).

Personally I’ve used the Defensive Assist to be able to focus on reading what play the offense is doing and not have to worry about if I moved that linebacker I was controlling too far out of his zone. It’s also nice to get a player moving in the right direction as soon as the ball is thrown, then I like to take over and go for the tackle or pick myself.

And there we have it, another week done in the countdown to July14th and the release of NCAA Football 10. It’s going to be a fun time as we get to release more and more information about the game between now and when you have it in your hands.

One last cool looking screen shot for the road.



-Russell Kiniry
Designer NCAA Football 10

Alright it’s time to take another look at NCAA Football 10. The design team has covered a wide array of info from Custom Conferences to our First Look into QA Auto Pass. We’ve really only begun to scratch the surface of this year’s game and we haven’t even hinted about a few of the biggest additions. Sadly we still are not ready to talk about them yet, but from reading all the comments and messages boards… I know one in particular will be a fan favorite.

This week we are going to cover the Player Pursuit Angles and how they have improved from last year’s game. First let’s take a look at an example of last year:

You can see the defenders gave up huge play due to the angle they took. The entire team took a bad angle instead of trying to intercept the ball carrier down field. Basically you could gain extra yards (or a touchdown) because defenders would use the sideline and while trying to make a tackle. Let’s look at the same situation in NCAA Football 10:

So instead of allowing the ball carrier to beat the whole defense to the sideline the defenders took a much better angle to stop a TD. What this means is all the extra yards picked up by just running to the sideline will be greatly reduced. Now if you are still able to get to the outside on a defense there are still yards to be had; but a much more reasonable amount.

The next example is from last year’s game as well:



The reasons behind that video come from a few different factors… Defenders would take the exact direction the ball carrier was using to calculate their pursuit angle. So if you were a “twitchy” runner the defenders would continue to change directions while still attempting to chase you. This would cause the defenders to slow down each direction change and not get to the ball carrier as fast as possible (or at all in the worst examples). Now for NCAA Football 10:



As you can see given the same situation as our previous example the defenders are not thrown off their angle by the direction changes. Long story short… the defenders do not fall for every direction change, but instead will move to intercept the ball carrier at a more logical location. This will really cut down on the effectiveness of “twitch” runs.

Also the new Player Pursuit will recognize a ball carrier pulling away from a slower defender and make them attempt a diving tackle. This creates more tackles and more realistic chase situations… more often than not a player will attempt a dive as a last ditched effort when they know they are falling behind, not just continue to follow the ball carrier.

That isn’t all; this new system has allowed us to have defenders sometimes take a bad angle using the Pursuit Rating (PUR) of the player. Bad pursuit is a part of football, not every player will play the perfect angle every play. So playing against lower rated players (or younger players with lower PUR) you will see them over run a play allowing the ball carrier to cut back against the gain and pick up some more yards.

And that is a wrap for this week’s look into NCAA Football 10. Leave your thoughts here or on our Forums.

-Russell Kiniry
Designer NCAA Football 10